Celx-Requin's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[ALIENATED]

It's great to see your shit here, my only critique is at times I felt the animation could have been a little smoother, other than that minor issue this was pure class.

I especially like that the design for the aliens resembled H.R. Gigers original designs, and the spaceships and industrial backgrounds were closer to the grimy nature of R. Scotts original film.
I also saw the comparison you did between the "Prometheus" trailer and yours, and while I'm don't think they ripped you off, I do feel both of the trailers have a similar aesthetic...

The soundtrack, sound effects, and voice acting were perfect, you did an excellent job directing this project, and your team deserves praise for their work as well. I love the use of shading and colour you implemented for this, it's dark and invokes that nihilistic existential quality prevalent in Gigers artwork.

This is fantastic work of the highest order that isn't pandering to some pre-pubesent demographic, and it's fucking refreshing to see it on the portal, it's about time you got the recognition you deserve.

Sincerely,
- Celx

BruceKnox responds:

THANKS... IF IT GETS VIRAL MAYBE SOMEONE WILL WANT ME TO MAKE THE WHOLE FILM AND FUND IT... SO SPREAD THE WORD.

[World: End]

The least shit submission of the day...

It has wonderful style, energy, and was well choreographed to the music;
on the other hand it was very short, and furthermore some of the animation seemed off.

Still the submission was really cool, please continue to create work as salient as this piece,
and I hope other animators will follow suit as well, and contribute something other than the dross of
lame unoriginal pop culture animations so prevalent in the portal these days.

Sincerely,
- Celx

[Life In A Nutshell]

There is something offensive about this submission, as well as the way you present yourself...

I mean for someone who "quit" newgrounds because he felt he was being "bullied", you certainly have taken to dishing out didactic criticism on other people's submissions. Often disregarding the technical merit of the submissions you've downvoted, purely because you didn't like the content.

Most of the content you've recently downvoted has been on the basis of it being a M.L.P. parody, and the use of "exaggerated faces", didn't you build up your fan base doing those silly pokemon movies with exaggerated mannerisms? (I spotted a some comical stylized facial features in this cartoon)

I may not understand the M.I.P. craze, but I would never leave such a low score towards something without taking into account the overall architecture of the submission.

You made a whiny bitchy post about how you were going to quit newgrounds because you felt you weren't being treated "fairly", and now some time later you're the one acting like a prick, you're the worst kind of hypocrite...

As for your submission:

- The animation was alright.
- Some of the drawings are sloppy within the context of what I think you were aiming for.
- The backgrounds range from decent to awkward.
- The length is somewhat short.
- The premise is uninspired, and execution dull.
- The audio is clear, and spot on.

I know "redfeather", and company ripped on you pretty hard, and that blows... However I can still respect those guys because they can take what they dish out without making some lame front page post about how they're being "mistreated" in negative reviews (those guys have enemies which have cost them awards).

If you want to come off as a decent dude don't treat people the way you wouldn't want to be treated, and learn to man up and take criticism that's valid seriously, and retarded reviews with a grain of salt. If you prefer to be an asshole that's fine too as long as you stop bitching, and acting like a victim when the inevitable recourse occurs.

Sincerely,
- Celx

FrostDrive responds:

I hesitated uploading this cartoon to newgrounds, because I anticipated reviews like this.

Nonetheless, yours is the first and only personal attack review.

Here's my response.

I generated no fan base with my pokemon cartoon. 3 years into my other account and I had 60 people favorite me as an artist. 3 months into this account and I already have 40.

The review I wrote for the MLP cartoon was harsh because I KNEW that guy could take criticism like an adult, and afterwards we even exchanged PM's with no hatred towards one another.

The cartoon with the facial features had TOO much, some is okay.

and my reviews were short and too the point. They weren't essays like you've written here.

I made ONE bitchy news post and won't do it again.

The point of me switching accounts was because I grew up. I can take critcism now.

Actually if you want (and I would appreciate if you did this)

Go to EVERY SINGLE thing I have on this site, and write essays for everything.

Go into as much criticism and detail as you can. I'll respond like an adult.

I'm not even the same person today than I was last year.

[Ammuts Angel]

The most interesting thing I've seen so far...

I'm familiar with some of your prior work, so when I found out you had a halloween submission I was pretty stoked.

The animation for the most part was pretty good, sadly it didn't seem as smooth as it could have. What was the "frames per second" setting used? It seemed to be 12-14, I think it would have looked better if you used the standard 24 F.P.S., then again you may not have been able to meet the halloween deadline if you did that.

At times the tweened car sequences were cringe inducing, while I can understand how difficult cars are to animate given the music video I did for the band "Tank Half Full". I still feel you could have chosen more strategic shots to animate, regardless cars are hard to animate so I can sympathize.

The artwork is where this cartoon really stands out, it's rare to see grittier "americana" style art represented in cartoons anymore, it reminded me of the artwork on H.B.O.'s "Hellspawn" television series. You did a good job on the shading, and while the drawings weren't always animated perfectly, I can be more lenient than I was on "The life of Gregory Brown", since the artwork is significantly more complex. Also the character designs were unique, if a little too "eccentric" for my taste, although they work within the context of the story.

The sound effects were all pretty solid, so no complaints there.

The extra's were a nice addition, I really liked the concept art, and some of the promotional artwork as well.

I hope you'll continue the series, I'm not sure your series it's going to appeal to me based on the preliminary cartoon, but I would like to see at least one more since it seems to be targeted towards a mature audience, that's something refreshing.

Sincerely,
- Celx

Snakejohnson responds:

Thank you for the well thought out review. The next episode will appear on the official website tomorrow. The link is in this video.

[Milk of the Manwhore]

Your work always makes me smile :)

I love your stuff man, I rarely review stuff especially if it's something popular like this since I doubt the author is going to read it. Regardless for some reason today I felt compelled to do so for your cartoon.

I really dig your character designs, I think the sound is right on, the humour is fresh, and the origin of the cartoon shows your dedication to your fans.

I'm also impressed that you've consistently chosen to make cartoons using original characters (Or in the few instances where you've used pre-existing characters you've chosen to avoid popular characters).

I guess my only critiques are I wish you included the original comic as a menu feature, and some of the animation seems a bit rigid at times.

Aside from that it was extremely well done, as always I'll be looking forward to your future submissions.

Fucking Aussies make the rest of us look bad...
Sincerely,
- Celx

Sexual-Lobster responds:

thanks!

[The Life of Gregory Brown]

It's interesting but flawed...

After my initial viewing I was going to give this a 4 star review, then I re-watched it and contemplated giving it a 8 star review; I watched it one last time, reconsidered and decided a 5 was the most suitable rating for this submission.

On one hand I appreciate the clever writing, unique art style, clearly preformed, well spoken dialect, and original concept.

However there are three flaws I can't overlook, all three of which I feel harm the integrity of the submission significantly.

The first being there isn't much animation, and the animation that is present is mostly a display of very simple tweens. While I personally don't have a problem with tweening if it's done well, very few people actually get away with pulling it off properly (James Lee's work on "Tarboy" comes to mind). The artwork in your submission while interesting, isn't conducive to animating, so the result is a cartoon that almost inanimate.

I personally would have kept the backgrounds in the same style, and used flash for the actual character designs. The character designs may not have been as salient, but it would have allowed you the freedom to have more versatile movements.

My second gripe, and the one other's have pointed out is the stories intention itself isn't clear. Is this supposed to be scary? Or is it supposed to be funny? If it's trying to be both it succeeds at neither. A submission with the intent to be a horror/comedy is something that by it's intrinsic design is almost always doomed to fail, because if it's funny it's too humorous to be horrific, and if it's scary it's too frightening to be comedic.

There are few films that have walked this delicate tightrope properly, "May" managed to succeed in this regard, "Willard" pulled it off too, "S&Man" did as well. Some people will cite "Scream", "Shaun of the dead", and "Slither" as other successes, but frankly those films were designed to be comedies with minor horror undertones.

In the end I just felt it was too unbalanced for me to enjoy on that level.

The length is my final gripe, I wouldn't have as much of an issue with the animation if the submission itself was longer. Unfortunately as it stands now there are a total of 21 scenes, most of which re-use the same backgrounds (or alter them slightly), and with the minimalistic nature of the animation, it almost comes off as a slide show.

Regardless I can respect, and admire the fact that you choose to do something original instead of a parody piece for halloween. It's easy to do something related to pop culture because it will almost certainly do well, it takes sweater meatier manlier balls to make something original.

Even though I think your submission has serious flaws, this piece demonstrated your talent as not only a programmer but animator as well; that's something to take pride in...

Sincerely,
- Celx

[Micmadness]

Dear Mr. Sung

Hello,

As a fellow Canadian I am proud to say this was the best submission for this years Madness contest.

First the animation was wonderfully smooth, and had some of the most amazing special effects I've ever seen in an animation ever, the complex camera angles and movements were all flawlessly pulled off.

At times the shots of hank holding the sword seemed like the drawings weren't quite as solid as they should have been, however this is a small grip in what otherwise is a near perfect piece.

The art style itself was unique, I'm not sure why but it felt unique, and salient, while still staying true to the source madness designs.

The music was well selected and fit well within the tradition of the "madness genre", the sound effects were also well choosen but at times the audio quality on them seemed lackluster (however I can sympathize, finding good "free use" sound effects is a difficult task).

I do however wish you would have included some extras like "flash notes", as well as a small "making of" extra detailing the production of the film.

How are you with drawing full figure characters? After seeing this I feel I may need to commission you to do some work for me in the near future, you live somewhat near me and having someone close to my proximity at my disposal is a massive plus!

Regardless you are an animator of considerable skill and of a high ilk, I wish you the best in the future, though after seeing some of your prior submissions I'm certain you will succeed purely on the fantastic calibre of your work.

Sincerely,
- Celx Requin

[Burning Bunny Mind Melt]

Fuck man...

You are a master...

Seriously I'm always amazed at some of the effects you manage to pull off in your inventive loops. This one is perhaps more basic than your other looped submissions, however it's still a wonderful aesthetically pleasing piece of eye candy.

Nice choice of music too, kinda tribal, and creepy, Maybe it's odd but in tandem with the fire backdrop the loop reminds me of the opening sequence in the film terminator II.

You are an incredibly adroit individual, did you go to university? Or did you learn everything you know through trail and error?

This would have made a perfect easter submission! Obviously though it wouldn't be right to give you a perfect ten for a short loop, even if it is excellent for what it is...

Oh donkey dicks! I need to get back to work, my clients are going to skin my testicles off if I don't...

Sincerely,
- Celx

TheBoogley responds:

Thanks mate, I've never officially studied animation, I've studied Illustration and Graphic Design, but just love animation. I've learned everything from text book, talking to other animators and by creating work and looking at the results.
what's an androit? :3

[The Cat and the Fish]

I'm so sorry...

Your reviews got deleted :(

Anyway, I really liked this, you had some smooth animation, unfortunately some of the drawings could have used some work. Even some of the animation seemed somewhat choppy or unnatural at times.

I fucking loved the ending though it totally caught me off-guard and gave me a bit of a chuckle. Nice to see a replay screen with some actual effort too.

I'm sure you had a puckish grin the entire time you worked on this didn't you, ya loveable bastard?

You deserve your awards, and i hope you'll continue to make shit, I'll be looking forward to it.

With love,
- Celx

Syringes responds:

Awww, I really appreciate your review Lmao! And yes I did have a grin most of the time I made this. XD

[MoGro Promo]

This is difficult...

On one hand I completely disagree with the message/pitch/product, on the other hand I can see the technical merit and flawless execution of the commercial.

Your use of basic geometric patterns to form different characters/object/creatures was skillfully done in that I understood what everything was supposed to be.

Your use of the colour blue to reinforce the company theme was intelligent, and done in a way that strikes a salient image, and leaves an impression.

The audio, and music selection were all perfect, so no complaints there.

The tweening while flawless is something that I always feel the need to take a star off. While you did an excellent job, in comparison with other submissions that use traditional frame by frame animation I feel it would be inappropriate to give something tweened a perfect score in the animation compartment. I can however empathize if you needed to use tweening to meet a deadline.

That now only leaves the content itself to critique, the idea of easy money is something I've always found terribly pernicious. While your commercial was clever and well written I don't feel it offered any concept of the risk involved in these type of ventures, and while I do believe the onus is on the consumer to look up risks involved in any type of investment, the website itself wasn't very informative.

From what I understand it's an investment software that's supposed to "simplify investing", that's an ostentatious thing to offer because investing in the stock market is like trying to figure out an complex esoteric formula akin to "chaos theory", a product like this can't possibly be useful due to the capricious nature of the stock market.

In a recession brought on by the stock market, and driven by an insatiable lust for greed and an easy dollar, a company offering a Machiavellian product like this seems unethical to me.

Regardless you did a great job, and I wish you the best with your other projects.
Sincerely,
- Celx